In his continued self-proclaimed war against corruption, Swaraj Party Founder and Chief, and famous lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, yesterday tweeted out the complaint filed by him in the Supreme Court of India accusing the Reliance group of industries, headed by Anil Ambani, of scam worth 50000 Million INR ($ 750 Million). His tweet was in reference to the Rafael deal that the government has undertaken with Dassault, a French Arms Manufacturer. The allegations are based on shady deals done by Reliance group in the 2G scam and the association of the group with the shell company called Swan Telecom.
Read complaint of $750M laundered black money received by Anil Ambani's companies.No action but huge piece of Rafale deal pie.And new Jumla pic.twitter.com/sMgjr4I27Q
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) November 14, 2016
The 2G scam which sent ripples across India, exposing the telecommunication giants and a number of influential politicians was first brought to light by CAG. The scam was primarily about the hotbed which telecom companies, government officials and politicians had created for themselves selling the licences to 2G spectrum at much lower prices than standard. The scam exposed many of the larger players of the telecom field and sent A. Raja (then Union Cabinet Minister for Communication & Information Technology).
Has France come on board with India as UK has? If not then review Rafael deal.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) September 21, 2016
India, world’s largest arms importer, requires foreign defence companies to invest a percentage of deals that they have been awarded to help the country build its own manufacturing base and be self sufficient to take itself off the imports.
Dassault agreed to invest 50 percent in so-called offsets of the $8.7 billion Rafael deal it signed with New Delhi on September 23 to supply 36 of its Rafale fighter jets. Now, Reliance, headed by billionaire Anil Ambani, which has virtually no experience of defence manufacturing, hopes to itself into a major defence firm over the coming years by joining hands with Dassault in India. The contract was awarded to Reliance which defeated competitors like Tata Group, Mahindra Group and Larsen & Turbo.
By his tweet, Mr. Bhushan has certainly questioned the authenticity of the deal awarded to Reliance after their alleged involvement in 2G scams. Any response by the Reliance group is awaited on this.
